Date: 25th April 2005
Place: Fusion, Kirkwall, Orkney
This is the uncut version of the interview, although a couple of words are missing that I can't work out.
I was a fan of you before you hit the big time. How does it feel to have gone from basically unknown to a famous band in such a small space of time?
Ollie: Right, well first of all, I'm Ollie! [all laugh] How ya doing, what's your name?
Clazz: Clarissa Linnitt.
Ollie: Eh? Kirsty?
Clazz: No, Clarissa.
Ollie: Clarissa.
Clazz: You can call me Clazz.
Ollie: Oooh, Clazz. Quite nice, I like it.
Dean: And you?
Sophie: Sophie.
Dean: Soph and Clazz...
Ollie: Right. Basically, it might seem like a short space of time to you guys, but we've been going on the road now for about four and a half years now. It's been a lot of touring, it's been a lot of hard work, a lot of work going into it, and to be honest, the most surprising thing has been our first single going in at number eight, because we had no idea because we didn't do any arena tours, we hadn't done any massive promotion . It's just been gig after gig after gig. So our hard work has paid off.
You are marketed in very different ways. You are featured in pop magazines and then played on rock music channels. Do you find it strange that while you are played on Scuzz, other bands playing the same type of music aren't?
Ollie: THAT is a top question!
All: That is the best question we've ever been asked!
Gary: Well the thing is, you know, we're just a band, and we haven't been put together by a record company or anything else like that. That kind of gives us a certain level of credibility that channels like Scuzz and Kerrang look for in a band, and you know, the fact that we do play live, and we play a lot of rock venues, and we support bands like Supergrass and you know, we're doing a tour with Kerrang magazine at the moment. So because we do stuff like that, that takes care of that side of the industry. So because we look quite.. poppy, that leads to the other side - Smash Hits, It's Hot and things like that, which makes us quite an accessible band, so you know, we've kind of got this thing where we seem to be able to appeal to a lot of different people, which is great.
[during this, Ollie and Rich leave for another interview]
So which category do you feel most comfortable in?
Gary: We're... just punky pop?
Dean: Punk pop.
Gary: Yeah, punk pop. We don't really mind, it means we get different opinions from people, like some people say 'you're like Busted' or whatever, you know, we don't really mind.
What sets you apart from similar bands like Rooster and Busted?
Gary: As I said, we weren't put together by a record company. Like, you know, Busted were manufactured, Rooster were manufactured -
Clazz: They weren't manufactured.
Gary: What?
Clazz: Busted weren't manufactured!
Gary: They were, yes they were -
Clazz: NOT.
Gary: I can assure you they were! I know people who used to be in the band and ?? live and tried out some people (??). I can assure you, they are manufactured.
Sophie: Don't get her started... [all laugh]
Gary: But there's nothing wrong with that, because it works, as Busted proved. And Rooster as well, they're manufactured and they're doing great, you know, and I think Rooster are a really good act, so, you know.. what sets us apart is the fact that we've been together for a long time and we write our own music. And that's it, you know, we don't have to prove that we're sort of completely different from everyone else; it's not that important to us. It's just, if people like what we do, that's great, that's all we're after.
How did you all meet?
Dean: How did we all meet... okay, Ollie was in an old boyband called Point Break and that all split up, and ?? their publishing deal. And Gary was working with the manager of that, so they started writing songs together. And Rich was a friend of a friend, so he came along later. And ?? their old manager, which is now our tour manager now.. I'm his cousin. That's how we all formed, and we thought, well you know what? We'll see what the tracks sound like with live drums, bass and guitar, and we thought, you know what? Let's have a go at it. And in the end, this is four and a half years later on, after a LOT of gigging... we've probably done about 500 gigs.
Gary: Yeah, I don't want to say how many gigs we've done.
Dean: A hell of a lot, I don't know, we've done gigs nearly every day and we've been together for five years.
Gary: No, we haven't done gigs every single day.
Dean: ?? six months. Yeah, I'd say we've done over 500 gigs.
What can we expect from the album? You had lots of song clips on your old website - how many of those do you think you'll use?
Gary: Not all the songs from the website are going on the album, but we're looking for about, you know, twelve to fourteen tracks for the album, and there'll be songs ranging from obviously the singles that people know, and there'll be a few kind of ballads, not Westlife type ballads, more sort of Athlete kind of ballads, that kind of thing. All just songs about being broke, just songs about daydreaming, fun stuff, you know, it's lighthearted. It's, you know, stuff that we've experienced.
When is it set to be released?
Gary: July 24th.
Clazz: Okay, cause I've been asking fans and no one seems to have any idea.
Gary: Yeah, it's because we still haven't finished it yet. What we've been doing is really just working out how much time we have to spend in the studio, so yeah, we're releasing the album.. I think we've got about three more tracks to do. And that's it. Done. Cause it takes two or three days to do a track in the studio, so we've got to find time for that.
Where do you get inspiration for your songs?
Gary: A lot of American bands, that sort of stuff, like Green Day, Bowling For Soup, Simple Plan, vocals, guitar, drums and bass - can't really go wrong. A lot of inspiration comes from things we've done, every day experiences, you know, being broke, break ups, getting together, going out and having, you know, nights out, things like that. Alcohol, that has a big inspiration on our music. Yeah, that's really where we find our inspiration.
Clazz: I've got a couple of questions for Ollie.
Dean: Oh yeah, I think he's doing another interview somewhere.
Clazz: Oh, I get lost in these notepads.
What would you be doing if you weren't in music?
Gary: Er, I don't know, because I've always been in music. Working at 16.. I started being a.. I started working in a guitar shop when I was 14 and then when I was 16, I started roadying with a function (?) band. And then I took over the sound, and I used to do all the sound engineering for that. And I went to college as well, music.. so since I was 14, you know, music is the only thing I've ever done. So.. but if not, I'd probably be.. a labourer!
Dean: I'd be a barman. Barman or forklift driver, one of the two.
Gary: Yeah, aiming high, Dean.
Dean: ??
What has been the best part of it all?
Dean: The best part of it all.. I don't know, it's getting better and better every day, I think.
Gary: I don't know, sometimes you go through mind changes, the fact that obviously the single went in at number eight and then we could say that, you know, we are a top ten act, which is great, you know, but obviously you can't blow your own trumpet, cause it is great to, you know, know that someone is getting what we've done and likes it. What else has been the best part?
Dean: It's a big achievement as well.
Gary: Yeah. I don't know, it's always those little things that just click into place and it's pretty cool. And like, coming here. I mean, I'm sure to you guys, we're just another band, but -
Dean: It's bloody freezing!
Gary: It's not that, it's the fact that you know, someone has put that much confidence in us to pay to fly us all out here, to hire equipment and stuff for us to use, to put us up in hotels, you know, and pay for us to play. Not.. pay us a great deal, but I mean we play any gig we can, because we like getting around, but that's like, that's a new thing for us. No one's ever flown us anywhere, so.. it's been pretty cool.
Clazz: Okay, well that's pretty much it.
Dean/Gary: Okay, cool. Anything else you want to ask?
Clazz: Er... not really. [laugh]
[we ramble a bit, they leave for the other interview. At this point, Sophie and I decided that Ollie and Rich weren't going to come back, so we left. Ollie then chased after us yelling that he wasn't finished haha. We also didn't record this in case it recorded over the first part - and later found out it wouldn't have done anyway, bah. So the following part isn't word for word.]
Ollie, you were in a boyband called Point Break. What happened to them?
Ollie: Well, Dec left. He was unhappy in the band and the way things were working out. We tried to convince him not to leave, but.. he was unhappy, so he just left.
What made you decide you want to be in a pop rock band?
Ollie: I didn't. I wanted to write material and started playing with these guys. We already had a good relationship with our management, and we wanted to write our own material, so we just went for it.
You wrote songs for other bands - which bands did you write for and did any of the songs get recorded?
Ollie: The idea was to write for other bands, but then we gigged together for about three or four months and it worked out so we decided to use the songs ourselves. Thing is, all the songs are given to a publishing company, so any that we don't use, like, they tell us if they think any songs aren't really us, like some, they said they were too 'young', so if any bands come along and the songs are right for them, then they could be given to them.
What would you be doing if you weren't in music?
Rich: Hmm, tricky.. the police force. I quite like the sound of the police force. But I think I'd still be playing.
Ollie: I don't know. I'd still be writing and I'd probably still be singing, whether it's in a band or in the West End..
Sophie: Or in the shower.
Ollie: [laughs] If I decide to go in that direction, yeah! NO, in the bath!
Sophie: In the BATH?! You sing in the bath?
Clazz: As a CAREER?! [all laugh]
Ollie: Yeah, if you wheel it on stage.. I could come up out of the bath!
What has been the best part of it all?
Ollie: Just lots of things - signing a deal, working with the producer, recording our songs [continues with long list], everything really.
Rich: I think seeing our record in the shop. No, it was a few weeks - a week before our first single was released, and we saw the CD all packaged up, and it's like, 'this is it. This is what we've been working towards all these months', it was amazing. And playing Wembley, that was great. It was shown on channel 4, I think.
Clazz: Oh yeah, I think I saw that.
Rich: Cool, yeah, it was the Smash Hits Poll Winners Party, so long ago.
Clazz: It was only a few months ago.
Rich: I know!
Ollie: And we played Party In The Park, SO many people...